Aspen, Colorado Stockbroker Sentenced to Five Years for Fraud

Aspen, Colorado Stockbroker Sentenced to Five Years for Fraud

Michael D. Montgomery, a former stockbroker and investment advisor in Colorado and Washington state, was sentenced to five years in federal prison for stealing over $1 million from his clients.

Montgomery, 44, was a licensed stockbroker in Tacoma, Washington up until 2009. He later moved to Aspen, where he passed himself as a successful financial advisor and lived a “high-flying lifestyle,” according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

Unbeknownst to his clients, Montgomery was financing his luxurious lifestyle with someone else’s money.

In his guilty plea, Montgomery admitted that he stole money from an elderly client who resided in the Tacoma area. Once his client entered a nursing home, Montgomery transferred close to $600,000 from the elderly investor’s account to his own account. After the client passed away, Montgomery continued to siphon money from his estate, and misappropriated another $244,000.

This was not Montgomery’s first act of misconduct. In 2009, he lost his securities registration in Washington state for unethical conduct. While in Aspen, he was under investigation by the Internal Revenue Service.

“Montgomery is nonchalant about his fraud, displaying a slick indifference for what he has done,” the U.S. attorneys stated in his sentencing memo.

In addition to five years in prison, Montgomery will be on probation for three years after his release.

The amount of restitution Montgomery will have to pay to his victims will be decided at a Jan. 25, 2013, hearing in Colorado federal court.

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